A virtual file management system provides user access to managed content on mobile devices. The system comprises storage domains storing the managed content distributively using file systems, and a data infrastructure that organizes the managed content into a virtual file system that maintains information of storage domain specific file system primitives for accessing corresponding portions of the managed content. The data infrastructure, which maintains metadata of the storage domains and the mobile devices, comprises a policy definition and decision component that maintains policies defining controls for permissible operations on the managed content, the permissible operations including the file system primitives. A client application hosted on the mobile devices is coupled to the data infrastructure and the storage domains and includes an enforcement component that communicates with the policy definition and decision component to retrieve and enforce the policies by applying the controls on the mobile devices.